Go and announce it from the mountain

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Go Tell It on the Mountain (German title: Go and announce it from the mountain ; in the more recent translation: From this world ) is the debut novel by the American writer James Baldwin from 1953. It is considered one of the most important novels with African American issues in the 20th century. In 1998 the Modern Library chose the novel in its list of the best 100 English-language novels of the 20th century at number 39; Baldwin's work was also included in the Time selection of the best 100 English-language novels from 1923 to 2005 and in Joachim Kaiser's 1000 books .

action

The intelligent, sexually indecisive youth John Grimes grew up in Harlem in the 1930s. The white teachers support him in part, but his life as a whole seems to be predetermined by his Afro-American origins. His strictly religious stepfather is a member of the Pentecostal movement , which on the one hand gives hope and cohesion to the black community, but also does not change its situation and is characterized by moral bigotry and religious fanaticism. John is looking for his real father and a role in society.

background

Not only in terms of content, but also linguistically, Baldwin's novel expresses the confrontation with the Christian faith: the linguistic rhythm of the English-language novel reads similar to that of the King James Bible . At certain points the novel makes references to biblical characters such as Ham or Moses , which are placed in context with the lives of the characters in the novel. Many critics also brought Baldwin's language images in connection with Afro-American jazz music , also connected with Baldwin's statement that he wanted to write the way jazz musicians would play. On another level, contemporary critics also generally saw the novel as a development novel .

The novel is strongly autobiographical. Baldwin never met his biological father and had a difficult relationship with his stepfather, a preacher, throughout his life. Looking back on his first novel in 1984, he said: “ Mountain is the book I had to write before I ever wanted to write anything else. I had to deal with what hurt me the most. I had to deal, above all, with my father. He was my role model, I learned a lot from him. Nothing scared me since then. ”Baldwin had worked on the novel, which he completed in 1952 in a friend's chalet in a Valais mountain village, for around ten years.

reception

Despite the portrayal of Afro-American society, many critics rated Go Tell It on the Mountain not as protest literature, but rather as a portrait. Overall, the reviews of Baldwin's novel are positive to this day, although there was also criticism in the 1960s by black civil rights activists who considered the novel to be assimilated and who accused Baldwin of a lack of pride in his portrayal of African Americans.

A German translation was first published in 1966 by Jürgen Manthey at Rowohlt as Gohe and proclaim it from the mountains . After the work in German was largely out of print, a new translation by Miriam Mandelkow followed in 2018 under the title Von hier Welt . The Germany radio saw the new translation as part of a Baldwin-Renaissance; his works are “not a bit out of date”: “Anyone who reads it today has the feeling that a contemporary wrote it.” Baldwin repeatedly grasps very specific situations that exemplify much greater things.

Georg Diez wrote in Der Spiegel about the new translation: “It is the clarity, also the hardness, that defines this novel, which has its place next to the classic The Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison from 1952, as well as the alertness of the words seem almost to move on the page that pushes out and goes beyond what is happening in the book - and the years it took Baldwin to be able to write this novel (...) ”.

Mandelkow was awarded the Helmut M. Braem Translator Prize in 2020 for the translation of this novel in particular .

filming

In 1984, directed by Stan Lathan, the TV movie Go Tell It on the Mountain starring Paul Winfield as the adult Gabriel, Ving Rhames as the youthful Gabriel and Ruby Dee as Mrs. Grimes. Baldwin commented positively on the film adaptation, the preparation of which took a total of eight years, as film producers saw little financial potential for it.

expenditure

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Robert Alter, The Art of Biblical Poetry , Basic Books, 1987
  2. Grädel, Peter: James Baldwin's novels in the USA and in the German-speaking countries of Europe, 1953–1981. Zurich, 1985, p. 119.
  3. Grädel, Peter: James Baldwin's novels in the USA and in the German-speaking countries of Europe, 1953–1981. Zurich, 1985, p. 74.
  4. Trapped Inside James Baldwin. Retrieved May 21, 2019 .
  5. Leslie Bennetts: James Baldwin Reflects on 'Go Tell It' Pbs Film . In: The New York Times . January 10, 1985, ISSN  0362-4331 ( nytimes.com [accessed May 21, 2019]).
  6. Grädel, Peter: James Baldwin's novels in the USA and in the German-speaking countries of Europe, 1953–1981. Zurich, 1985, p. 119.
  7. Grädel, Peter: James Baldwin's novels in the USA and in the German-speaking countries of Europe, 1953–1981. Zurich, 1985, pp. 94-95.
  8. Grädel, Peter: James Baldwin's novels in the USA and in the German-speaking countries of Europe, 1953–1981. Zurich, 1985, p. 77.
  9. James Baldwin: "From This World" - Not a bit out of date. Retrieved on May 21, 2019 (German).
  10. Georg Diez: Intellectuals: Fanal der Menschlichkeit . In: Spiegel Online . tape March 10 , 2018 ( spiegel.de [accessed on May 21, 2019]).
  11. ^ Go Tell It on the Mountain (1984), TV film. Retrieved May 21, 2019 .
  12. Leslie Bennetts: James Baldwin Reflects on 'Go Tell It' Pbs Film . In: The New York Times . January 10, 1985, ISSN  0362-4331 ( nytimes.com [accessed May 21, 2019]).